Vine & Bloom Counseling, PLLC

02/06/2026

Happy Friday! Be sure to rest and relax this weekend. You deserve it! ❤️‍🩹

02/05/2026

What is the most important agent of change in Play Therapy? 🧸❤️ The Therapist ❤️🧸

The Therapist’s Role in Play Therapy

1. Creating Emotional Safety
The therapist provides a calm, accepting space where a child feels free to express thoughts, fears, and experiences through toys rather than words. Many children don’t yet have the vocabulary for big emotions — play becomes their language.

2. Following the Child’s Lead
Unlike adult talk therapy, play therapy is typically child-centered. The therapist observes themes, choices, and interactions without forcing direction, allowing the child’s inner world to emerge naturally.

3. Attuning & Reflecting Feelings
Therapists listen not just to words but to actions in play. Reflecting feelings (“That superhero looks really worried”) helps children develop emotional awareness and regulation.

4. Facilitating Healing Through Symbolic Play
Toys often represent real-life people, fears, or situations. A therapist gently supports processing trauma, anxiety, family changes, or social struggles through these symbolic stories.

5. Building Skills Indirectly
Play therapy can strengthen:
• Emotional regulation
• Problem-solving
• Confidence
• Social skills
• Resilience

This happens organically rather than through direct instruction.

6. Partnering With Parents/Caregivers
Therapists help caregivers understand the child’s needs, reinforce emotional language at home, and support secure attachment.

The therapist’s presence communicates:
“You are seen. You are safe. Your feelings matter.” ❤️🧸

02/04/2026

🧸🎨 International Play Therapy Week 🎨🧸

In play therapy, toys are more than toys — they’re a child’s language.
Because children don’t always have the words, they use play to tell their story.

🥊 The punching bag
This helps children safely release big feelings like anger, frustration, or fear. Instead of holding it in or acting it out elsewhere, they learn it’s okay to express strong emotions in healthy ways.

🛒 The grocery store
Through pretend play, children make sense of everyday life. Shopping, organizing, and role-playing family routines helps them process what they see, hear, and experience at home and in the world around them.

👗 Dress-up & imaginative play
Costumes allow children to try on roles, explore identity, build confidence, and express emotions they may not yet understand. A cape, uniform, or crown can say what words cannot.

✨ In play therapy, children don’t have to explain their world — they show it.
And when they feel seen, safe, and understood, healing begins.

Happy International Play Therapy Week 💙
Because play is powerful.

(Pictured is the Vine & Bloom Shiner office)

02/03/2026

❤️❤️ How play therapy helps: ❤️❤️
• Builds emotional awareness and regulation
• Helps children process difficult experiences
• Strengthens problem-solving and coping skills
• Improves behavior and communication
• Creates a sense of safety, control, and confidence

Play therapy isn’t “just playing.” A trained therapist carefully observes themes, patterns, and emotions in the play and gently helps the child make sense of their world—at a pace that feels safe for them.

When children feel understood, supported, and empowered through play, real healing can begin. 💚

02/03/2026

Happening next Monday! We still have tickets available. We will have some awesome door prizes as well! 🙌🤩

02/02/2026

This week is:

🧸✨ International Play Therapy Week ✨🧸

Play is a child’s natural language—and toys are their words.
In this space, children work through big feelings, trauma, transitions, and worries in ways that feel safe, natural, and empowering.

During International Play Therapy Week, we celebrate the healing power of play and the incredible work children do when given the right environment to grow, express, and heal.

💛 Because play isn’t “just play”—it’s therapy. Please contact us if you’d like to learn more!

01/30/2026

Go grab your ticket and a coloring book! 🤩

01/30/2026

01/29/2026

🌈 “When Worries Feel Big: God Is Bigger”

Thank you First Methodist Church Gonzales for inviting me to be the guest speaker yesterday at Kid’s Jam. The topic was anxiety.

Anxiety happens—but God is with us, helps us, and gives us tools to calm our hearts.

At the end of our time, the kids wrote down one worry and placed it in “God’s hands” and we prayed this prayer together…

God, You see our worries.
Thank You for loving us and staying with us.
Help us remember…You are near when we feel anxious.
In Jesus’ name, Amen. ❤️🙏